SRINAGAR: The Delimitation Commission in its draft report has proposed major changes in Assembly and Lok Sabha constituencies in Jammu and Kashmir, especially in the Valley. The commission has stuck with its stand in the first report of increasing six Assembly seats in the Jammu region and only one in Kashmir.
The report, which was handed over to five associate members of J&K on Friday evening, has been outrightly rejected by the NC and the PDP.
In the draft report, many Assembly seats in Kashmir have either vanished or redrawn and merged with new assembly seats. For instance in Srinagar, which had eight seats in erstwhile J&K state, four seats, Hazratbal, Khanyar, Sonawar and Eidgah, were retained but the remaining four were redrawn and merged with new seats. The new seats in Srinagar are South Srinagar, Chanapora, Zoonimar and Central Shalteng.
The Habba Kadal seat in Srinagar, which had many Kashmiri Pandits, has disappeared. As per the proposed report, voters of Habba Kadal will be part of at least three Assembly seats.
In Baramulla district, Gulmarg and Sangrama are no longer there and two new seats, Tangmarg and Kunzer, have been created by redrawing boundaries of old seats.
In south Kashmir’s Kulgam, which had four seats, the commission has proposed only three seats, D H Pora, Kulgam and Devsar. Shalibugh and Noorabad were redrawn and merged with DH Pora and Devsar.
In Anantnag, which had six seats, seven seats were proposed by the Delimitation Commission. Kokernag and Shangus were redrawn and merged with Larnoo, Anantnag West and Anantnag East.
The commission has also proposed major changes in three parliamentary constituencies in Kashmir. Pulwama, Tral and some areas of Shopian in south Kashmir, which were part of the Anantnag LS seat, will now be part of the Srinagar parliamentary seat. Thus the Srinagar LS seat will be spread over five districts.
It has also proposed redrawing of the Anantnag parliamentary seat by including Rajouri and Poonch from the Jammu region. Similarly, Budgam and Beerwah assembly constituencies in central Kashmir’s Budgam were added to the Baramulla Lok Sabha seat.